By way of background, a number of medical conditions such as compression of spinal cord nerve roots, degenerative disc disease, tumor, and trauma can cause severe back pain. Intervertebral fusion is one surgical method of alleviating back pain. In intervertebral fusion, two adjacent vertebral bodies are fused together by removing the affected intervertebral disc and inserting an implant that would allow for bone to grow between the two vertebral bodies to bridge the gap left by the disc removal. Another surgical method of relieving back pain is by corpectomy. In corpectomy, a diseased or damaged vertebral body along with the adjoining intervertebral discs are removed and replaced by a spinal implant that would allow for bone to grow between the closest two vertebral bodies to bridge the gap left by the spinal tissue removal.
A number of different implant materials and implant designs have been used for interbody fusion and for vertebral body replacement with varying success. Current implant materials used include metals, radiolucent materials including plastics, elastic and polymeric materials, ceramic, and allografts. Current implant designs vary from threaded cylindrical implants to rectangular cages with teeth-like protrusions.
Medical implant devices used in surgical procedures, such as those described above, can be associated with particular information to guide medical professionals before and after the surgical procedure. Each implant device carries a wealth of information that is valuable to the patient, the implant manufacturer, medical researchers, healthcare professionals, and medical facilities. However, the information, which may include the implant manufacturer and manufacturer's lot number, the date and location of surgical implantation, the responsible surgeon, any medical notes, photographs, or diagrams relating to the implant, surgery, or condition, may not be adequate, properly recorded, or readily accessible for beneficial use by a healthcare professional, implant manufacturer, or medical researcher after implantation. Problems relating to poor implant records can lead to unnecessary delay or even medical error by healthcare professionals. Moreover, there are many different implant identification methods currently in place instead of a common system to allow manufacturers, distributors, and healthcare facilities and professionals to effectively track, identify, and manage implant devices and medical device recalls. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently announced a program focusing on requirements for unique device identifiers for every medical implant device to address the need for a more robust implant device identification system, the details of which are incorporated by reference herein: www.fda.gov/udi as of the filing date.
In imaging implanted devices post implantation, it is oftentimes desirable to be able to retrieve encoded data and images from the structure of the implanted device itself, and to do so in such a way as to maintain the confidentiality and security of the encoded information.